Mission Trip 2011: Kansas City

In case you haven't already heard me say it...our mission trip this year was to Kansas City, MO.

**UPDATE: I am coming back to add this link as promised. Here is a link to Christiana's Mission Trip Blog Post**

We are now about half way through the week, and things have been a little bit crazy as mision trips can tend to be. We are doing a lot of great work and lives are getting touched--both in the community and in our groups. As I was thinking about it I realized that this year our group is different than any other group we have taken from Villebrook in the last four years. Not only is the group smaller it is also closer knit, has a lot less drama, and a lot more new believers. It has been an interesting experience to watch how they have responded.

Phil and Kody with the 2lb Rice Krispie Treat that Kody
bought for himself during our drive to Kansas City, MO.

So if you read my last post you probably remember me mentioning a guy named Kody. Well not only is Kody a young believer and an amazing young man...today is also Kody's birthday. Yeah, we sang to him and people wished him happy birthday but I am sure that it was nothing like he would have had at home, but he came on mission trip anyway. Then the "icing on the cake" (ha ha) was that Kody and Phil were working at their service projects today shoveling out a basement where a sewage pipe had burst and left a royal mess. The amazing thing is that I didn't hear him complain once!

I know that too many times in my life I have been focused on my "sacrifices" or the circumstances that I am in and I miss what God is trying to get me to do. I think that I can say with very little doubt that Kody didn't miss it. Kody was right in the middle of it, serving and showing others the love of Christ today.

I know that God is going to use Kody's testimony to touch peoples' hearts and I personally can't wait to see what the other half of the week has yet to bring to us.

13 Characteristics of a Growing Church: Service

This week couldn't have been more perfect if I had actually planned it this way--which I didn't! So here we are in Kansas City, Missouri, on mission trip and today we are going to be talking about Serving the Lord! Let's just say that God blows my mind. I want to stop and praise the Lord a little bit before we jump in. Praise God that our car made it hear without issue after all the problems we had with our fuel system last week. Praise God that we all made it to Kansas City safely (despite the car problems some of the other teams suffered). And praise God for this opportunity to serve! Just so you know, I am probably going to take a break from this series on Wednesday and write a little ditty about mission trip, and I will be sure to post links if Christiana writes anything although I think she is waiting until we get home. So anyway, let's talk about serving God!

So here's a quick recap of the Characteristics of a Growing Church:
1st Love Genuinely
2nd Hate What is Evil
3rd Cling to What is Good
4th Devoted to One Another
5th Humility
6th Excitement
7th Stability

The 8th characteristic of a growing Church is Service.
"Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord." Romans 12:11 NIV

I don't know about you but I think that Americans are really spoiled. For the most part our country is really great and we have a lot of freedoms--including religious ones. Just the fact that I can have a blog that's all about God and the things that He is teaching me and how I try to serve Him is a privilege that I often take for granted but others around the world would die for. I can go around and scream "I LOVE JESUS!!!" and all I will get are a few stares or some harsh words. Others could literally die for that. Then why aren't we as Americans taking advantage of our freedom to proclaim God and using it to serve Him? I personally think it's because we are lazy and we are worried about what our friends will think of us being "Jesus Freaks".

On Friday night I was really encouraged by one of our students. Planning for this mission trip has been difficult and there were a few times that we thought about calling it off completely. No one seemed to be excited about going to Kansas City to share Christ and to serve Him in 100+ degree heat. So I had some really mixed feelings about how things were going to turn out. Then Friday night came and so did Kody.

Kody is a new believer. This is His first ever mission trip, and He's still figuring out the whole Christian thing. Well Kody was supposed to come to our house at 9pm on Friday so that he and Scott could help us load stuff into our van bright and early Saturday morning. Kody got to our house at 8pm. His smile was beaming and his excitement was contagious. In fact, he was so excited about mission trip and coming over to help load stuff that he forgot half of his mission trip supplies including a sleeping bag, towel, pillow, water bottle, and Bible. I just laughed and was thankful that my wife keeps a stock of a few extra hospitality items. So Kody and I talked about how excited he was about mission trip while Christiana pulled out our extra sleeping bag, water, towels, Bible, and other items Kody needed.

I look forward to see if Kody's excitement continues as he serves God this week. Kody helped to remind me that a church that is focused on missions is a church that is focused on Christ. After all, Jesus' last instructions to His disciples were to go and tell all people about Him (Matt. 28:19-20). Why would they call it the Great Commission if it wasn't important? We constantly need to be serving not only other Christians but also anyone who comes in contact with the church and with us as Christians.

Serving wasn't a suggestion or just some great idea. It was a command. Go! Missions is one of the most obvious ways that we can serve God, but there are many other ways as well. Just because you can't get off work for a week to serve God in Kansas City or elsewhere doesn't mean that you get a free pass from serving. Find a need in your church or your community and meet it. You can do that. I know you can!

More Resources:

• International Mission Opportunities - International Mission Board
• North American Mission Opportunities - North American Mission Board
• International Missions for Teens - Royal Servants International